Tablets in 2013: what to expect

The next Nexus, iPad 5, iPad mini 2 and a wealth of Windows tabs

It should come as absolutely no surprise that the biggest addition is likely to be a Retina display or something similar, bringing the display up to a rumoured 324 pixels per inch.

After all, just about every other Apple product has a Retina display and the screen on the iPad mini was one of the few bad things about it.

There's no release date yet but expect it sometime in the latter half of 2013.

An iPad mini with Retina display would be formidable providing it's priced reasonably

There's a good chance Apple will roll out iOS 7 to go with their shiny new tablets, and while literally nothing is yet known about that, you could always check out the 12 things we want to see.

4. Windows tablets

Having ignored it for a long time, Microsoft is finally making a big play for the tablet market. They've launched not one, but two tablet-friendly operating systems in the form of Windows 8 and Windows RT, and Microsoft's own Surface tablet has already launched.

Microsoft's Surface may not be setting tills alight but there are plenty more Windows tablets to come

5. Everything else

Amazon are having quite a lot of success with their Kindle Fire line, so expect the 3rd generation Fire to launch sometime next year, ready to go head-to-head with the new Nexus.

There is likely to be an increasing number of low-cost, high-spec tablets available from other manufacturers too.

Asus are rumoured to be working on a low-cost 7-inch slate and other companies will probably look to release budget devices of their own in order to stay competitive.

Amazon led the charge in the affordable tablet march; don't expect them to back down now

With Blackberry 10 launching in January there's every chance that RIM will make another play for the tablet market too. Whether they'll have any more success than with the ill-fated Blackberry Playbook remains to be seen.

With all this, and probably a few surprises besides, it looks set to be one of the biggest years yet for tablets, and we'll bring you coverage of it all as it happens.